This application pertains in general to an information presentation system, and more particularly to a teaching machine system which presents lesson material to a student at a pace dependent on his ability to learn.
In recent years teaching machines have been developed for use in schools and industry as a means of providing individualized instruction which would otherwise not be possible because of lack of classroom facilities or qualified instructors. Such instruction may be remedial in nature, allowing slower students to review material without slowing down their classes, or advanced in nature, allowing faster students to cover material which would not otherwise be covered. In either case, to approach the effectiveness of individual tutoring by an instructor, teaching machines must be capable of being intrinsically programmed, i.e. the student's responses must be able to be utilized to control subsequent presentations. It is only when new information is selected on the basis of a previous answer or a series of answers made by the student that a degree of effectiveness compared with individual tutoring is possible.
Instructional material in intrinsically programmed teaching machines is preferably presented in visual form from a strip of film, individual frames of which are projected one at a time onto a viewing screen in front of the student. A plurality of answer keys is provided for recording the student's answers to questions which may appear on the screen, and if desired an audio presentation may be given concurrently with the visual presentation. Typically, a small portion of text material relating to the subject under study is presented to the student in each frame, often with a question and a plurality of multiple-choice answers. After studying the question, the student depresses one of the answer keys to indicate his answer. If his answer is correct, the next frame presented to the student provides additional information to further his progress. If the answer is incorrect, a "branch" is made in the instructional program and a new frame is presented to the student advising him of his error and providing him with further instruction and directions to follow before he can proceed in the program. For example, a student choosing a wrong answer may, upon the next frame being presented to him, be directed to return directly to the preceeding frame and choose another answer. Or, he may be directed to proceed to a succession of different frames for added coaching before being directed to return to the frame at which he selected the wrong answer.
Typically, prior art teaching machines of the above-described type, i.e. those utilizing intrinsic, or branch, programming in connection with a multiple frame film strip, have either been unduly large, complex and expensive, or have been hampered in their presentation of instructional material by inherent programing limitations. For example, one prior art machine utilized a search technique whereby the address of the subsequent frame to be displayed was read from code indicia on the frame being viewed. The film strip was then placed in motion and the stored address compared with address codes on each passing frame until the desired frame was reached, at which time the film strip was stopped and the desired frame displayed. Unfortunately, this required a large number of optical encodements on each frame, which necessitated that the encodements be kept smaller than desirable for reliable performance, allowing even a minor irregularity on the film to cause the search operation to miss the desired frame and continue on to the end of the film strip. Furthermore, the need for frame-by-frame code comparison necessitated that the film run relatively slowly, undesirably increasing the time between displays.
Another prior art teaching machine required that the film strip move a fixed number of frames upon depression of an answer key prior to displaying the next frame. The excursion was different and fixed for each answer key, so that the material presented on the next frame depended on the answer selected. While being less complex than the aforementioned search-type machine, the presentation of instructional material was sometimes limited by programming limitations. For example, in complex programming situations the fixed excursion format occasionally precluded certain desired presentation formats, and often made it necessary for the student to make multiple selections before being presented with the next frame of instructional material. While the flexibility of this machine could be increased by providing a larger number of selection keys and related excursions, this necessarily complicated the selection task of the student and increased the cost and complexity of the machine.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved teaching machine system.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved teaching machine system which offers increased flexibility and improved reliability.
It is a still more specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved teaching machine system wherein the next frame to be viewed is rapidly positioned without the need for a frame-by-frame address comparison.
It is still another specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved multi-mode teaching machine wherein the instructional film strip is contained within a cartridge, and the operating mode of the machine is automatically established upon insertion of the cartridge.
It is another specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved teaching machine which requires a minimum number of detectors for reading code indicia on the instructional film strip.
It is another specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved teaching machine which requires fewer code indicia on the instructional film strip.
It is another specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved teaching machine which provides improved handling of the instructional film strip when presenting frames for viewing to the student.
It is another specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved multiple-mode teaching machine system which operates in a primary variable-excursion mode wherein information for locating the next frame to be viewed is contained on the frame being viewed, or in a secondary fixed-excursion mode wherein the film is advanced a fixed number of frames dependent on the answer selected, with a minimum number of additional components.
It is another specific object of the present invention to provide a new and improved teaching machine which provides for the presentation of alternate material following a predetermined number of selected correct or incorrect responses by a student.
It is another specific object of the present invention to provide a teaching machine wherein only those answer keys representing valid responses to a displayed question are rendered operative to advance the film strip.
It is another specific object of the present invention to provide a teaching machine wherein all answer keys are disabled for a predetermined period of time following actuation of an answer key representing a non-valid response to a displayed question.